Page 63 of Tears of Tungsten
The Sister and the Mother
Selene
Earlier
After everything Jared had told me about the fabled ruler of the apsids, I’d expected it to take forever for him to arrange a meeting with her. I’d expected another power play, something along the line of what King Philip, General Rhodes, and other such leaders liked to do.
I should have known better. Clearly, apsids did things very differently, and their political system was nothing like ours.
After our ‘mating’, Jared summoned one of the sun spirits to bring me something to eat and drink. By the time I finished the meal, he was already back with the news that the Great Mother had agreed to see me. “So soon?” I asked him.
“In truth, she wanted to meet you before,” he admitted, “but I believe she thought it wouldn’t be appropriate, since we hadn’t mated yet. It’s traditional to welcome a new Heliad here on Nexus. You might not be one of us yet, but you’re close enough.”
He didn’t say it, but he obviously hoped to fix that in the future, to fully turn me into a Heliad like he was. The thought stirred mixed feelings inside me, much like Jared himself did. On one hand, he’d saved my life and he’d been honest and pretty straightforward with me, even when I hadn’t wanted to hear what he had to say. On the other, he’d forced me into a relationship I was nowhere near ready for and had presumably gotten me pregnant.
Because of all that, I couldn’t come up with an answer for him. And so I thanked him with a silent nod and left the bed. As if acknowledging how strange and alien this felt for me, he produced an outfit that looked almost identical to the uniform I’d worn at Chimera Academy.
He’d given me plenty of clothes to wear in the past, but they were all apsid fashion, loose and flowing, just like the dress I’d first woken up in. Today, he’d picked something Terran, and it surprised me, for more than one reason.
For the first time since my arrival here, I remembered I’d seen him wearing his chimera tamer uniform once or twice. I doubted it had survived the way he’d died, so how had he gotten it here? And how had he procured something similar for me?
Jared must have noticed my confusion, because he proceeded to explain. “Heliads tend to be very good at blending in. To ensure we complete our undercover missions as efficiently as possible, the tailors on Nexus manage to create outfits identical to those of the species we infiltrate.”
“I’m pretty sure I should find that alarming, but right now, I’m just happy it’s convenient,” I replied with a sigh. “Thank you.”
He shot me a quick smile and left the room, giving me space and privacy to change. It was a little pointless, now that we’d had sex, but I still appreciated the attempt to make me feel more comfortable. Paradoxically, it also irritated me. It would have been so much easier to reject him and everything he’d done if he’d acted like an asshole and had not cared about my opinions and beliefs at all. But nothing in my life had ever been easy, so I had to live with this too.
Getting dressed involved the same process I’d grown accustomed to at the academy. It only took me a couple of minutes to get ready, although I did struggle with my hair. The Phaeton Heart finally approached me and provided me with a vine to tie it back. After our earlier interaction, I was a little reluctant to accept its aid, but in the end, I decided to go with it.
In an insane world, one had to be just as crazy to survive.
When I was satisfied with my look, I left the mating den. The doors opened without me trying to force them into compliance, like I had during my ill-fated escape attempt.
Jared was waiting for me, and I assumed the mechanism had responded to him. “Ready?”
“Always,” I replied, although that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
In the past month, I’d grown a little more accustomed to Eos and to the apsid way of life. The capital city of the Heliad Empire—as they called it—was truly a beautiful place. I’d only seen the lower levels of the settlement, but I was constantly surprised by the graceful way the apsids had managed to entwine the intense power of flame with various life forms. Wherever I looked, flickers of light danced through the air, fragments of starlight that reminded me a lot of Sphinx. The people tended to cluster together in groups according to their respective units, and while they kept their distance, they’d never been unfriendly. The buildings defied all sense of gravity and reality, with a lot of them orbiting around the main plazas like asteroids.
The end result was a labyrinth of interconnecting floating roads that could occasionally end in nothing at all. Jared was very good at anticipating where a building was supposed to be at any given moment, but it was still easy to get lost.
In the middle of it all there was a spire. According to Jared, it was the one point in Eos that always remained stationary, the singularity around which the settlement had been built. Most people called it the Helix, and it was the Great Mother’s throne room and temple. Hopefully, I’d be able to find my answers there, with the leader of my captors.
From the distance, the spire looked like it was crafted from pure photons, but when we got closer, it became obvious that this was not the case. It was a metallic building, just like the mating den. But that was where the similarities between the two structures ended. The moment Jared ushered me inside, past the gates, my heart started racing and my head began to spin. I mentally flailed, instinctively reaching for my frayed bond with Sphinx.
Inside the spire, we found a large bridge that led up to a dais with an empty throne. Behind it, there was an actual helix, so tall I couldn’t see where it actually ended. The graceful curves of light bent around the edges of the metal bridge, anchoring us here. Beyond the helix, there was nothing, just the forces of space, the unaltered power of the universe, reaching for us, its voices clawing and battering at my consciousness. As a chimera pilot, I’d faced the void of space before, once even without having the benefit of Sphinx’s protection, but it had never been like this.
“It’s an intriguing feeling, isn’t it?” a female voice asked from behind me. “I don’t know about you, Selene Renard, but whenever I look around me, I can’t help but wonder what actually created it all, how this universe came about.”
I pivoted on my heel, instinctively facing the source of the words. I had a whole speech prepared in my head, something that would fit my situation while still being respectful of The Great Mother’s position.
My vocal cords refused to obey me at the image that greeted my eyes. By my side, Jared went rigid. He bowed lowly, and not wanting to be rude, I did the same. “Greetings, Great Mother.”
“Hello, Jar’yd,” the woman replied, gliding up to us like a floating sun spirit. “I see you’ve brought your mate to see me. I am pleased.”
The woman looked young, far younger than I’d expected her to be. She was wearing the same loose garment Jared had once provided for me and she seemed my mother’s age, maybe a little older. The mild lines around her eyes and the gray in her hair spoke of a life well lived, and when she looked at me, she smiled warmly.
“Welcome to Eos. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am the Great Mother.”
